Shipping strategies for print-on-demand businesses

In this video you’ll learn

Two ways to approach shipping:

Setting higher product prices to absorb free shipping for customers

Customers love free shipping
Setting free shipping at a price threshold is a good strategy to stay profitable and encourage higher average orders

Lower product costs, but customers have to pay for shipping

Use this only when you can't build a profitable business by offering free shipping
Will result in more abandoned carts
Paid shipping allows customers to choose their arrival speed

0:00

Hi, I'm Samantha. I'm a small business owner and I work here at Shopify. In this video, you'll discover how to ship your products for your print-on-demand business. The first important factor to consider is that most print on demand businesses that use Shopify are based in the United States. That means the costs for both products and shipping tend to be higher than the rates for products made in China. With higher costs, you'll need to make an important decision to be profitable.

0:26

Do you absorb shipping costs and set a higher price point for your products so shipping is free for your customer? Or do you make customers pay for shipping separately? Let's compare the benefits and challenges for each option so you can decide which is the best for you. Offering free shipping is a benefit that your customers will love. Without free shipping, customers who were eager to buy might decide to abandon their cart when they see the added cost.

0:50

To offer free shipping without losing your profit margins, you can use the free shipping threshold method. This is when you offer free shipping on a condition. For example, free shipping over 50 dollars or free shipping on orders over 100 hundred dollars. This method has a few other benefits. First, it often raises your average order value, so people will spend more in your store just to the free shipping.

1:15

Second, it helps you maintain profitability. It's recommended that you experiment with the pricing until you know what strategy works best for your business. The goal is to ensure profitability when all your business expenses are added up. Clothing stores tend to use a free shipping threshold method most often. If you're running a print-on-demand t-shirt business, you could try this method out as well. With the free shipping over a certain amount method, you'll be able to absorb the costs if people buy multiple products.

1:45

To determine if this option is best for your store, you'll need to ask yourself if you can afford to offer free shipping and stay within the market value while making a profit. If the answer is no, a free shipping threshold may be the best option for you. With a threshold, you can offer free shipping while bundling other products on your store to make the price point less painful for the customer. The second option for shipping print-on-demand products is to make your customers pay for the shipping.

2:13

This is likely an option you'll want to use only if you really have to. The only reasonable time to charge for shipping is when you can't build a profitable store by offering free shipping or free shipping at a certain threshold. When running a print-on-demand store, you'll likely find that charging for shipping will result in a higher abandoned cart rate. You can still retarget those who abandon their cart and try to win them back. However, without free shipping, that might be a bit of a challenge.

2:40

The best time to charge for shipping is when it's a standard practice in your niche or when the shipping cost for the product is just too high. There is one small upside to charging for shipping. When you charge for shipping, customers can choose from different shipping suppliers so that they can choose the speed of their shipping. For example, if you want to offer a faster shipping option for your customers, you can give them the option to pay for it, so they can control the speed of their delivery.

3:06

Milestone niches tend to work best for this option. For example, if you sell bridal party tank tops, the bridal party might need those tops to be shipped for a certain time frame. With paid shipping, they can control when their product will arrive. When it comes to print-on-demand shipping, the most important question to ask yourself is will this method be the most profitable option for my business? Since you're building a brand, you can always charge a higher price to ensure profitability, but you do need to take all your costs into account when choosing the best shipping method for you.